Sleep: Nearly half population in short supply - ITREALMS

Study@ITREALMS:

Does this sound familiar? You stay late at the office to work on a project and decide to get a few drinks with friends before you go home. Before bed, you cozy up on the couch to squeeze in one last episode of Game of Thrones. Before you know it, the alarm rings, prompting you to get up and prepare for the gym.

If this sounds like a regular Tuesday, you're probably one of the millions of Americans who don’t get enough sleep. Why? As we’re faced with a multitude of commitments and distractions every day, we allow ourselves to de-prioritize and neglect sleep.

We got curious about how Americans snooze, so we partnered with Thrive Global and Axios to quiz respondents from our Audience panel directly using SurveyMonkey.

What are you curious about? Use SurveyMonkey Audience to use surveys to ask anyone pretty much anything.

Here’s what we’ve learned:

Nearly half of Americans aren’t sleeping well, and they know it

Only 47% of our respondents get between 7-9 hours of sleep a night. Nearly that same percentage of overall respondents say they get "the right amount" of sleep.

In spite of the fact that nearly half of our respondents knowingly skimp on sleep, the majority—86% of respondents—say they recognize the importance of a good night's rest.

So why is the amount of sleep we get lacking when we know how important it is? Blame it on work. And our phones aren’t helping either.

Choosing work over sleep

Nearly half of our respondents—49%—believe that sacrificing sleep is necessary in order to be successful in their industry.

But does sleeping less actually lead to better performance at work?

Research tells us it doesn’t, as a lack of sleep has been shown to substantially increase your chances of getting sick, impair your ability to think creatively and critically, and ultimately limit your salary growth over time.

The desire to stay connected

Notifications from colleagues, friends, and family can feel important—leading Americans to keep their phones close by, even when they’re asleep.

Over 70% of respondents sleep with their phones near their beds, with the figure at 90% among Millennials. Even more striking is that 83% of respondents who work more than 50 hours a week sleep with their phones near their bed.

It looks like technology is quite literally getting in the way of Americans’ dreams.

Take the quiz yourself to see how you score. It may be just the wake-up call you need to unplug a bit—whether it's from your job or from your devices.

*JOIN our alert's group | Share stories with us | Advert placement: WhatsApp | SMS: +2348033592762 *Twitter: @ITREALMS *Email: itrealms.dsa@gmail.com*

Nigerians, Wake Up From Sleep

WeekendSalvo@ITREALMS:

The maverick entertainer and self-styled area father, Charley Boy coined the phrase, ‘Our Mumu Don Do’ last year. The ideology, according to him, was to galvanize docile Nigerians to rise up from their comfort zone and begin to show more interest in the issues of governance as it affects them. He aired jingles on television and radio and granted several interviews in the newspapers. He and his associates even when on road shows and carried placards to demonstrate against some of the rots in the system! For these he was maligned and bruised, physically and mentally.  Months into that campaign, some may argue that not much have changed.

One may not totally agree with the way and manner Charley Boy goes about his businesses, but one thing you cannot take away from him is the fact that he is bold and courageous. At a time when the morale was at an all-time low, he took the giant step of canvassing for better governance and jolting the presidency even at the risk of his own life and those of his associates. How many of us can do likewise? We complain each day about leadership and yet we do nothing concrete. Can you eat an omelette without first frying an egg? Many of us are not happy with the seeming ineptitude in the system but are just too fearful of doing anything meaningful about it, forgetting that nothing good comes easy.

When you know the truth, then you are free from the shackles of ignorance. Are you passionate about your country? Do you want to see this nation great again? Now is the time for us to wake up from sleep and participate more actively in national affairs. We cannot afford to be lukewarm. There is no better time than this to make the difference. For instance, after over a year of agitation, the government is finally nursing the idea of commencing a sort of ‘restructuring’ the way they deemed it fit. We have always advocated that the process of building our future is a continuum. It cannot be carried out by a single political party in one swoop. All Nigerians have roles and inputs to make as responsible citizens. I want to re-iterate that there is no way the reports of the last confab can just be throw into the bin, all because it was championed by the opposition party. I also have issues with the last administration; but, surely, there are some recommendations in that reports that are very useful to us at this point. Do we really need another committee to fashion out the way forward for us? We are just moving round in circles.

The call for restructuring has been on for some time now. The agitation became so heated last year that the government inaugurated the El-Rufai committee to make recommendations. And now that the committee in its own wisdom has made public its submissions, one wonders how they would be viewed by all, considering that there was no collective bye-in by the major stakeholders like other political parties, civil societies, ethnic nationalities, etc. Would the other groups readily agree to all their submissions? So which is the way forward?

Mediocrity breeds retrogression. Pretence is sheer self-deceit. We all know the problem with Nigeria. Are we honest enough to confront them head-long? Our old brigade politicians know the problems and the solutions. But are they ready and willing to do the needful? Are we ready to compel them to do the needful? No movement, no motion. 

Those who wish well for this nation, beyond selfish interest, know that proper restructuring is the way to go. We will not move forward if we continue to play ethnic and religious cards rather than facing the substance. It is time for us all to be wise and not allow ourselves to be used and dumped like before. It is all about our future, our happiness, our children’s future. 

My fellow countrymen and women rise and be active players in the affairs of your country. Do not just sit and watch. Together we can build a better and truly progressive nation.

*Courtesy: Monsignor Gabriel Osu, is the Director of Communication, Archdiocese of Lagos.

ITREALMS ... everything news digitally!

Scientists say genetic links sleep disturbance with restless legs syndrome, schizophrenia, and obesity

ITRealms:

A team of American and British scientists have for the first time discovered genetic connections between sleep disturbance and a range of medical disorders including obesity, reports ITRealms.

Lead author Dr Jacqueline Lane, postdoctoral fellow at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and joint senior authors Richa Saxena, Assistant Professor of Anaesthesia at the MGH and Harvard Medical School and Dr Martin K Rutter, Senior Lecturer in Cardiometabolic Medicine from The University of Manchester, publish their ground-breaking research in Nature Genetics today.

The study looked at the biological controllers of sleep duration, insomnia and excessive daytime sleepiness, and how they linked to the health and life histories of more than 112,000 people taking part in the world-leading UK Biobank study.

Study participants reported their sleep duration, the degree of insomnia and daytime sleepiness, and then had their genes mapped. Other information about them such as their weight and any diseases they suffered from was also collected.

The researchers identified for the first time areas of the genome that are associated with sleep disturbance including insomnia and excessive daytime sleepiness and also discovered novel genetic links with several medical conditions including restless legs syndrome, schizophrenia and obesity.

The strongest genetic association for insomnia symptoms fell within a gene previously linked to restless legs syndrome – a nervous system disorder affecting around 1 in 20 people that leads to a strong urge to move one's legs which is often worse at night. Other gene regions were important for insomnia but selectively in either men or women.

The team also identified genetic links between longer sleep duration and schizophrenia risk and between increased levels of excessive daytime sleepiness and measures of obesity (body mass index and waist circumference).

The research also suggested that insomnia has shared underlying biology with major depression and abnormal glucose metabolism.

Funded by the US National Institutes of Health and The University of Manchester’s Research Innovation Fund, the study marks a major advance in our understanding of the biology of sleep.

One in four British adults are obese, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, prompting fears that the UK has become the "fat man of Europe". And at any one time about 280,000 people are being treated for schizophrenia by the NHS. Sufferers have a 1 in 10 chance of dying by their own hand within ten years of diagnosis.

Dr Rutter said: “This clinical science is an important step forwards in understanding the biological basis for these conditions so it’s very exciting.

“Scientists have long observed a connection between sleep disorders and these conditions in epidemiological studies. But this is the first time these biological links have been identified at a molecular level.”

UK Biobank aims to improving the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of a wide range of serious and life-threatening illnesses. 

Dr Lane said ”We’re particularly pleased to be able to use UK Biobank data in this way; it’s an amazing resource for scientists.”

Dr Saxena said: “It’s important to remember there is no molecular targeting available for conditions which affect sleep: all we really have are sedatives.

“So we hope that this research will enable scientists to develop new ways to intervene on a range of conditions in a much more fundamental way.

“We do acknowledge these findings will need further study, but believe this knowledge amounts to a key advance in our understanding of the biology behind sleep - a major influence on our health and behaviour.”

ITREALMS ... everything news digitally!